Friday, January 23, 2015

No Longer Silent Snipers Speak Out

Snipers cowards? Local sniper and Marines take offense to Michael Moore
KHOU 11 News
Kevin Reece
January 20, 2015

CYPRESS, Texas - In tours of Iraq and Afghanistan Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeff Crenshaw never had to worry about anyone calling him a coward – doesn't have to worry about it now for that matter. But when movie-maker Michael Moore tweeted the "cowards" comment, Crenshaw – a former sniper - and a chorus of supporters of the movie "American Sniper" responded.

"Anybody who says that is an idiot," said Crenshaw now retired from the military and employed as an insurance agent in Houston. The former sniper had to make the same difficult choices and brought home some of the same demons as sniper Chris Kyle, the man's whose life is portrayed in the movie.

"The person I was before I went to Iraq, I absolutely never was when I came home. I mean it just changes you."

"It shows the true nature of war," said Crenshaw who saw the movie last week. "How awful it is and the toll it takes on a human being. Because taking a life is not a natural act."
read more here


Jan 21, 2015
Jeff Crenshaw is a retired Marine Corps sniper, who says "American Sniper" is the most realistic thing he's seen since the battlefield. He also critiques the notion of snipers as cowards.





Sgt. William Rollins, Silver Star, lost more than 20 to combat and 20 more to suicide.

Package about the heroic actions of Sgt. William Rollins. His valor in Afghanistan earned him the Silver Star. The Nation's 3rd highest award for gallantry in combat was presented to him during a ceremony at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, Dec. 17, 2010.
American Sniper has done more than show a very rare glimpse of a sniper. It went beyond telling the stories of them back home. The movie got them talking and opening up. In the process, hearing the struggles of the elite, the rest of the veterans may begin to finally see that PTSD has nothing to do with lack of training, lack of courage or anything else they are lacking. It has more to do with what they have an abundance of, and that begins with their strength and courage while still being just human.

OEF OIF 5 Tours, Marine's Home Hit By Thieves

Reports: Retired marine's home stripped bare in theft
FOX News Carolina
By Derek Dellinger
Posted: Jan 22, 2015

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) Donald Taylor's luck just hasn't been good when it has come to his home.

There's been problem after problem, he said, leading him to finally vacate the home late last year due to a foreclosure with belongings still in the home.

Taylor said he, his wife and son went to visit family while the issues with the bank settled down. Just as the retired Marine's finances were getting good and they were able to move back in last month, they were hit with another setback - his home had been stripped bare of nearly everything of value. 

"When we walked in there was stuff everywhere. There was glass, no appliances, no door hinges, no doors, they were all taken down," Taylor said.

Inside his home near Furman University, it's a mess. There is damage to sheet rock from power wires being stripped, along knobs and faucets removed from baths, showers and sinks.
read more here

Criminals Made Vietnam Veteran Homeless, Community Made Him Feel Loved

Bradenton Vietnam veteran gets break after criminals left him homeless
Bradenton.com
BY JAMES A. JONES JR.
January 23, 2015
'I didn't realize there are so many good people out there'


Margi Dawson with Turning Points hugs Dennis Moylan after he was presented with a mobile home Thursday at Pioneer Mobile Home Park in Bradenton. At right is John Smith with Turning Points. Moylan was left homeless in December after a suspect fleeing deputies crashed a stolen Cadillac Escalade into his mobile home destroying it.
GRANT JEFFERIES/Bradenton Herald
MANATEE -- A stolen Cadillac Escalade crashed into Dennis Moylan's trailer the day after Christmas and left him homeless.

Moylan, a 63-year-old Marine Corps veteran of fighting around Phu Bai and Quang Tri, Vietnam, had lived in the trailer for 14 years, making just enough as a groundskeeper at New College of Florida to pay his bills.

Somehow, even though his home was destroyed, Moylan wasn't injured.

"I think St. Joseph was in the back bedroom," he said.

Moylan didn't have any savings and didn't know what he would do. "I couldn't fathom something like this happening," he said.

On Thursday, Moylan choked up, overcome by emotion when he received a $3,000 donation from Bingoland through the nonprofit Turning Points. That money allowed him to become a homeowner again just a few doors down from his original home.
read more here

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth May Get Justice After Electrocution Death

Mom of soldier electrocuted in base shower hails Supreme Court ruling 
The Associated Press
Published: January 21, 2015

PITTSBURGH — The mother of a Pittsburgh-area soldier electrocuted in his barracks shower at a U.S. Army base in Iraq seven years ago says she's grateful the Supreme Court rejected three appeals by a military contractor seeking to stop the case and other lawsuits from going forward.

The high court offered no comment Tuesday in allowing three lawsuits against KBR Inc. over the electrocution and open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan to proceed.

The parents of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted in his barracks shower in January 2008, filed one of the lawsuits. The suit alleges a KBR unit was legally responsible for what it says was shoddy electrical work common in Iraqi-built structures taken over by the U.S. military. KBR disputes the claim.

Cheryl Harris, Maseth's mother, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Wednesday that she never expected it to take more than seven years after her son's death to get the case closer to a trial. "I'm grateful that we're here," she said.
read more here
Green Beret electrocuted in shower on Iraq base
CNN
Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
May 28, 2008

Story Highlights
At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq from wiring problems

Ryan Maseth, 24, died January 2 while taking a shower on base

"I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted," his mom says

Defense Department inspector general, Congress launch investigation

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A highly decorated Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died a painful death in Iraq this year. He died not on the battlefield. He died in what should have been one of the safest spots in Iraq: on a U.S. base, in his bathroom.

Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in his shower January 2.

1 of 2 The water pump was not properly grounded, and when he turned on the shower, a jolt of electricity shot through his body and electrocuted him January 2.

The next day, Cheryl Harris was informed of his death. A mother of three sons serving in Iraq, she had feared such news might come one day.

"I did ask exactly, 'How did Ryan die? What happened to him?' And he had told me that Ryan was electrocuted," she said.

Her reaction was disbelief. "I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted ... in the shower," she said.

Maseth, 24, was not the first. At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, according to military and government officials. Watch mom describe horror, heartbreak over son's electrocution »
read more here
Electrical Risks at Bases in Iraq Worse Than Previously Said
New York Times
By JAMES RISEN
Published: July 18, 2008

WASHINGTON — Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military’s largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.

And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, many more have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to the documents. A log compiled earlier this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters on an almost daily basis.
read more here

240,000 Veterans Claims Still Backlogged

Veterans advocates: Stop the VA 'hamster wheel' disability appeals process
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: January 22, 2015
"Veterans groups and advocates lined up to blast the VA appeals system at Thursday’s hearing in front of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance and memorial affairs."
The effort to clear a massive backlog of veteran disability claims is hurting efforts to address a similar backlog in appeals of denied claims, say advocates demanding reforms to an onerous “hampster wheel” system that leaves veterans languishing for years.

A congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday focused on the appeals process, noting that the Department of Veterans Affairs has about 350,000 pending appeals of denied service-connected disability claims.

“I am aware that the [VA] chose to prioritize certain initial claims in recent years, but I must say that when veterans in my district share that they waited six, eight, 10 years to resolve a meritorious appeal of a service-connected disability claim, I just find that alarming and unacceptable,” Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., said.

Veterans wait an average 3½ years to get an initial decision and often years longer for the VA to finalize that decision. There are almost 510,000 original disability claims pending, with more than 240,000 deemed “backlogged” — meaning the veteran has been awaiting a decision for at least 125 days.
read more here

Senator Barbara Boxer Swan Song Still Tone Deaf

This is from Barbara Boxer's website as a press release without any corrections done.

How important is this to her if she sends out a press release with all those errors? Lord knows I make a lot of mistakes too but since I am by myself and usually have my head exploding with frustration, it is a lot different than having staff to check.
Boxer Introduces 'Homeless Veterans Welcome Home Act' to Provide Suupport For Veterans Transitioning Intro Permanant Housing

Bill is Based on Successful California Program that Provides Homeless Veterans with Critical Household Items and Assistance to Help in Transition to Permanent Housing
Wednesday, January 21st 2015
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Homeless Veterans Welcome Home Act of 2015, legislation that would establish a national pilot program to provide furniture, household items, and other assistance to help homeless veterans as they transition into permanent housing.

“When many homeless veterans finally obtain permanent housing, they arrive with few or no possessions,” Senator Boxer said. “This grant program will assist veterans by providing them with basic household items – such as a bed or utensils– to help them successfully make the transition to civilian life.”

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), approximately 40,000 homeless veteran families receive permanent housing through VA housing assistance programs each year. However, most veterans who receive housing do not have the means to pay for critical household items and typically move into empty apartments. These veterans often have no means to cook or enjoy the basic comforts of a furnished home.

In 2012, the non-profit California Department of AMVETS partnered with the West Los Angeles VA to create an innovative “Welcome Home” program that provides homeless veterans transitioning into permanent housing with furniture, appliances, and other necessary household items. The program has since expanded to serve Long Beach, San Diego, Orange County and Fresno communities and has provided household items to over 1,450 formerly homeless veterans.

The Homeless Veterans Welcome Home Act of 2015 is modeled on this successful public-private partnership, and will help fill an important gap in our assistance to homeless veterans by addressing their immediate move-in needs.

Specifically, the Boxer-Feinstein bill would:
Establish a 3-year pilot program to award grants to eligible organizations to facilitate the delivery of furniture, household items and other assistance to homeless veterans who qualify for housing under the VA’s housing assistance programs.
Require the VA to prioritize communities with the greatest need of homeless services and fair geographic distribution when awarding grants.
Cap the maximum amount awarded per grant at $500,000, and the maximum amount of assistance provided to an eligible veteran at $2,500.
Authorize $5 million for 3 years to be appropriated for the program.

This bill is endorsed by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Swords to Plowshares, and the California Department of AMVETS.

Far from the first time Senator Boxer has introduced bills and far from the first time it has included errors as well as omissions.

In 2008 military suicides had her attention.

Bill Addresses Military Suicides
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
March 27, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) recently introduced legislation requiring the Defense Department to establish a detailed database on suicides and attempted suicides among U.S. troops.

Last year, 121 soldiers committed suicide and another 2,100 attempted suicide, Boxer said on her Web site. She noted that the 2,100 attempted suicides represents a six-fold increase since 2002 (when the U.S. was not at war).

In addition to requiring a comprehensive database, the Boxer-Lieberman legislation (formally, The Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act of 2008) would require the individual investigation of all suicides across the Armed Forces, and it would require the Pentagon to provide Congress with regular updates on military suicides.

A second bill, The Armed Forces Mental Health Professionals Recruitment and Retention Enhancement Act of 2008, would increase the number of uniformed mental health providers serving service members and their families. (Lieberman noted that the troops have a strong preference for uniformed, rather than civilian, providers.)

"This legislation will help ensure that the Defense Department and Congress are getting an adequate picture of the state of mental health within our Armed Forces," Boxer said in a news release.

Earlier that month she had this to say
We have a big problem ... that is only going to get worse if we don’t do something big now,” Boxer said as she and military medical officials testified before the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee.

“We need to ensure we have adequate numbers of uniformed mental health providers who can train and deploy with our troops and be there when they are needed,” she said, noting that treatment does no good if it is not available quickly.

“When we do this right, it is going to help our military in the long run,” Boxer said.

And when will that be? After all the bills done the "big problem" became worse because the "something" they did right away and often repeated did not work and they just did it all again!

What kind of a game are they playing with the lives of our veterans and troops? We've heard it all so long now that the swan songs of members of congress have proven they are still tone deaf!

Vietnam Veteran Killed Crossing Street, Driver Left Him There

Family of Vietnam veteran killed in Savannah asks hit-and-run driver to come forward
Savannah Now.com
Corey Dickstein
Posted: January 21, 2015
Meyer is survived by his wife of 50 years, Phyllis Caponetti Meyer; his daughters, Cohen and Sue Meyer Ross, of Brookline, Mass.; and five grandchildren.
“The fact that he lost his life in this violent way, crossing the street, just seems not right and unjust,” she said. “It seems really disrespectful to a man who gave so much to his country and to his community. That’s just one of the reasons my family and I hope to get some answers to what happened (and) to have somebody step forward and take responsibility.”

About two weeks after her father was killed in a hit-and-run wreck on Savannah’s southside, Deb Meyer Cohen came to Savannah to ask whoever did it to come forward.

Cohen, of Oakton, Va., spoke to media Wednesday morning at the VFW Post 660 on Ogeechee Road. She described her father, Peter J. Meyer, as a wonderful man who went out of his way to do the right thing.

“He was a very good, noble man,” Cohen said of Meyer, 72, who was found dead about 10:30 p.m. Jan 4 along Aberocrn Street near Twelve Oaks shopping center. “... He would never get dirty; he always did the right thing, even if there was some personal cost to him.

“So one of the things that I’m asking now is for people to do the right thing, to be noble, to be righteous like my dad.”
read more here
Still no arrests in hit and run of decorated war veteran
By Chelsi McDonald
Published: January 21, 2015

VA Construction "Fubar on Steroids"

‘FUBAR on steroids’: Congressmen blast VA about construction debacles 
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: January 21, 2015
“This is a FUBAR on steroids if I’ve ever seen one. …I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone when I listen to this,” Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) said, using a military slang acronym that includes an obscenity. “I’m not sure the VA should ever build a hospital.”

Sloan Gibson, Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary, at a June 4, 2014 event in Washington, D.C.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/MCT FILE PHOTO
In the latest black eye for the Department of Veterans Affairs, congressmen grilled officials Wednesday over construction mismanagement that has cost the department hundreds of millions of dollars in overruns and delayed major projects by years.

“It’s long past time for these projects, marred by bureaucratic ineptitude, to be complete,” House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said during a hearing on VA construction problems.

The hearing was prompted by several recent flaps over major projects, including a new VA medical center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., where a contractor walked off the project after major delays and hundreds of millions in cost overruns. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that, on average, the largest VA projects were three years late and $376 million over budget.

Speaking in front of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the department is overhauling the way they do construction and that “veterans and taxpayers are right to expect more and they deserve much better from their VA.”
read more here

UK Military Prevalence of Anxiety, Depression, Plus PTSD

Anxiety and depression twice as prevalent in military - study says 
BBC
January 21, 2015
"The findings draw attention to the need for Defence Medical Services to continue to focus on identifying and treating depression and anxiety in addition to PTSD."

The high levels of stress that soldiers experience could be a factor, researchers say
Members of the UK armed forces are twice as likely to develop depression or anxiety than members of the general working population, a study suggests.

The King's College London research compared surveys from 7,000 military personnel with people in other jobs.

It found 18% of men and 25% of women in the forces reported symptoms of common mental disorders, compared with 8% of men and 12% of women in other areas.

The MoD said it had improved mental health services for the military.

The researchers said the study, published in Psychological Medicine, was fairer then previous studies which included results from unemployed people and those with long-term health problems and disabilities - who researchers said were more likely to report symptoms of mental illness.

The findings could be explained by the frequency and intensity of stressful events experienced by those in the military, researchers said.

Military life also required extended periods spent away from family and friends, they added.

The survey included questions such as whether the subject felt they were "playing a useful part in things".

Respondents from the military were almost three times more likely to disagree with this statement than those from the general population, the study found.
read more here

El Paso VA "We Make Our Own Diagnoses" on PTSD

Fort Bliss Shooting Highlights Broader VA Dysfunction
KRWG.com
By SIMON THOMPSON
January 21, 2015
"I want to tell you something we gave up our life for our country maybe we weren’t buried but a part of us got buried, we expect you to honor what we have done don’t treat us like we are here for a handout these are things that we were promised when we took the oath and we are warriors” Nick D'Amico


El Paso Veteran Nick D' Amico passed away in 2013

while waiting for medical care from the El Paso VA
Credit Simon Thompson
Every day 22 U.S. veterans commit suicide. The recent murder-suicide that took two lives at Fort Bliss is raising questions about the VA’s ability to manage ongoing mental health issues facing returning soldiers Simon Thompson reports.

Fort Bliss went on lockdown as authorities moved to contain an active shooter. The gunman was an Iraqi veteran and former El Paso VA employee Jerry Serrato. He shot and killed VA psychiatrist Doctor Timothy Fjordbak before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life. The FBI reported that Serrato had threatened Fjordbak in 2013 when both men were working at the El Paso clinic.

But there may have been another trigger. In a Washington post report- A former clinic employee said that Serrato was frustrated that the clinic had found his claim of post-traumatic stress disorder unwarranted and wasn’t going to give him the medical treatment he was expecting.

Lillian D’ Amico says it wouldn’t be the first time the El Paso VA has denied a veteran’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder she says the El Paso VA rejected treatment for her son Nick…who was diagnosed with PTSD years earlier at the VA in Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, she says they even rejected Nick’s PTSD diagnosis.

“The first time he brought his records with him and they said ‘We are not interested in theses , we make our own diagnoses’. So Nick had been in Albuquerque they looked at the records. they looked at the records, come here and they don’t want to look at the records They don’t want to treat the mental ill because they don’t have the doctors and they don’t have the money, there is too many of them” she says
read more here


Fort Bliss Shooting Highlights Broader VA Dysfunction
January 21, 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Military Suicides: What Good Did It Do To Be Right?

I am drained. I can't possibly be the only person in this country wondering why the hell this latest bill out of congress deserves supporting. Then again, considering my email box is usually full of reasons why it should be supported, it is very lonely from where I sit.
Senate panel OKs bill to lower veteran suicide rate
The Associated Press
By Matthew Daly
January 21, 2015

WASHINGTON — A bill aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers vowed quick action on a measure that was blocked in the last session of Congress.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee unanimously approved a bill named for Clay Hunt, a 26-year-old veteran who killed himself in 2011. The bill is aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic that claims the lives of 22 military veterans every day.

Aimed at reducing? Ok then what about all the other bills? Anyone figure out how to aim the right weapon to accomplish that? Nope! So far the only aiming is being done by a veteran with the gun in his hand and they usually don't miss.

Click the link to read the rest of the article if you can stand it. I can't. I had to leave this comment.
When will this ever end? How many more years of bills being passed while veterans pay for the failures of congress with their lives? How many more have to die before they figure out they had it wrong since the first bill in 2007 and then only reprinted more of the same?

HBO did a documentary back in 2013.

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Since 2001, more veterans have died by their own hand than in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one veteran dies by suicide in America every 80 minutes. While only 1% of Americans has served in the military, former service members account for 20% of all suicides in the U.S.

Based in Canandaigua, NY and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Veterans Crisis Line receives more than 22,000 calls each month from veterans of all conflicts who are struggling or contemplating suicide due to the psychological wounds of war and the challenges of returning to civilian life.

The timely documentary CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1 spotlights the traumas endured by America’s veterans, as seen through the work of the hotline’s trained responders, who provide immediate intervention and support in hopes of saving the lives of service members.

After serving their country overseas, many military veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress, depression and addiction. Since 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered about 900,000 calls. CRISIS HOTLINE highlights how its dedicated responders react to a variety of complex calls and handle the emotional aftermath of what can be life-and-death conversations. The film captures these extremely private moments, where the professionals, many of whom are themselves veterans or veterans’ spouses, can often interrupt the thoughts and plans of suicidal callers to steer them out of crisis. Hotline workers sometimes intervene successfully by seizing on the caller's ambivalence and illuminating his or her reasons for living.
read more here
Since its launch in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered more than 1.35 million calls and made more than 42,000 lifesaving rescues. In 2009, the Veterans Crisis Line added an anonymous online chat service and has engaged in more than 192,000 chats. In November 2011, the Veterans Crisis Line introduced a text-messaging service to provide another way for Veterans to connect with confidential, round-the-clock support, and since then has responded to more than 28,000 texts.

This means as bad as the numbers are with young veterans committing suicide triple their civilian peers and veterans in general double the civilian rate, it would be worse without this crisis line. But hey, why talk about this? It is a lot easier to just follow along and push to have another bill passed. 

Why come up with the change veterans have been waiting for? Why do something different since they have been paying for these failures with their lives?

The granddaddy of all these bills was the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention act passed by the Congress in 2007 and signed by President Bush in 2008.

This was part of it.
`(h) Hotline- In carrying out the comprehensive program, the Secretary may provide for a toll-free hotline for veterans to be staffed by appropriately trained mental health personnel and available at all times.

You can read everything else in the bill but you can find more of the same in every other bill they have pushed, passed, signed and funded.

Hint, these bills were in place before Clay Hunt and thousands of others committed suicide.

While we're on the subject, why would we want to talk about veterans facing off with police officers or committing suicide by cop? Or why talk about them still asking for help like Clay did only to discover the help he needed was not what he got? Why talk about the fact that no one has been held accountable for all the failures this far? Why talk about Congress listening to family members after someone they love made it back from combat but ended their pain the only way they could think of?

Why talk about the fucking fact that none of this is new?

If you want to keep spreading the message that this will do anything tomorrow, show up at your local cemetery because they'll be needing more graves for veterans.

Think I'm wrong? Well they thought I was wrong back in 2009 too when I said if the Army pushed Comprehensive Soldier Fitness they would see suicides increase and they did. Maybe you can tell me what good did it do to be right if they died faster?

UPDATE Add this to the above
CBS News: VA Patient Data Reveals Growing Number Of Suicide Attempts By Veterans 2008
"When you go through war, you're going to change permanently and totally for the rest of your life," said veteran Harold Pendergrass.

Pendergrass knows firsthand the hidden wounds of war. He served two tours in Vietnam.

"I carried a suicide note in my pocket for years," he said.

At 57, the former Army soldier has tried to take his own life three times, constantly wrestling with thoughts of killing himself.

"I sat around numerous times with a .44 in my mouth," he said. "But for some reason, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I don't know why."

Now, CBS News has obtained never-before seen patient data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, detailing the growing number of suicide attempts among vets recently treated by the VA.

The data reveals a marked overall increase - from 462 attempts in 2000 to 790 in 2007.

"This is highly statistically significant," said Dr. Bruce Levin, head of the biostatistics department at Columbia University. Levin is one of three experts who analyzed the data for CBS News.

"I'd characterize it as something that deserves further attention," Levin said. "Overall the data suggests about a 44 percent increase and that is not due to chance."

According to the experts, two age groups stood out between 2000 and 2007. First, ages 20-24 - those likely to have served during the Iraq-Afghan wars. Suicide attempts rose from 11 to 47.

And for vets ages 55 to 59, suicide attempts jumped from 19 to 117.

In both age groups, the attempted suicides grew at a rate much faster than the VA patient population as a whole.

In addition, this VA study, also obtained exclusively by CBS News, reveals the increasing number of veterans who recently received VA services ... and still succeeded in committing suicide: rising from 1,403 suicides in 2001 to 1,784 in 2005 - figures the VA has never made public.

And add this to that from today
A new study suggests that the suicide risk for Eldridge and other veterans who served in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is significantly higher – 41 to 61 percent higher -- than for the general population. The study, led by Department of Veterans Affairs and Army researchers, is the most comprehensive look to date at the suicide risk for veterans who were on active duty during the recent wars.

North Carolina Veteran Reminded SHE SERVED TOO

Female veteran shamed for parking in veterans-only spot 
By WNCN Staff
Published: January 20, 2015
Mary Claire Caine said she believes the “Wounded Vet” did not realize she was a fellow veteran because of her sex. “They have this image of what today’s American veteran is,” she said. (Photo credit: WECT)
WILMINGTON, N.C. – An Air Force veteran who served in Kuwait found a note on her car Friday criticizing her for parking in a veterans-only parking spot in Wilmington.

Mary Claire Caine told WECT-TV that she returned to her car from shopping at Harris Teeter to find a note plastered to her front window from a person identifying themselves as a “Wounded Vet.” It read,

“Maybe [you] can’t read the sign you parked in front of … This space is reserved for those who fought for America … not you. Thanks, Wounded Vet.” 

 Caine, who served in Kuwait and on the flight line of the F-117 Nighthawk, said her heart sank. 

“The first thing I felt was confusion that there was a mistake, and that I had to talk to this person and ask them why they were so quick to assume I wasn’t a veteran and that I was taking privileges that didn’t belong to me,” Caine said.
read more here

King County North Carolina Changes Memorial

King approves new design for kneeling soldier silhouette
WXII 12 News
Jan 20, 2015
KING, N.C. —King City Council voted Tuesday to approve a new design of a kneeling soldier silhouette statue at the veterans memorial at Central Park.

The new design was approved two weeks after council voted 3-2 to settle a lawsuit regarding the memorial. Council voted to change the design pictured in this story by switching to an M-1 rifle and removing the boots.

The previous silhouette design showed a soldier kneeling in front of a cross.
read more here


It is used all over the country like this one in Orlando.

Double Murder-Suicide Claims Lives of Veteran Family

Apple Valley Couple, Child Found in Apparent Murder-Suicide were Dead for Weeks
KSTP.com
By: Ellen Galles
Created: 01/19/2015

David Crowley, his wife Komel Crowley, and their 5-year-old daughter were found dead inside their Apple Valley home over the weekend. Apple Valley police say the case appears to be a murder-suicide.

David Crowley was a veteran of the U.S. Army, he served five years and left in 2009 to become a filmmaker. Komel Crowley was a registered dietician who ran her own business. One friend says they doted on their five-year-old daughter.

read more here

Before death of family, Apple Valley filmmaker voiced struggles over project
Twin Cities.com
By Nick Ferraro
POSTED: 01/20/2015
A photo from David Crowley's Instagram account shows Crowley with his wife, Komel.
In the days leading up to his death, David Crowley still had hope that his independent film would pan out.

But Crowley, an Apple Valley filmmaker and screenwriter, also showed concern over the project -- "Gray State," a movie that the Army veteran scripted but had yet to film.

In an email to a prospective producer, Crowley wrote that the project was "now almost completely abandoned" by its original backers and that he was "exhausted from carrying and managing this burden for so many years."

"Maybe the work load got too crazy; I don't know the personal reasons, but at the end of it all here I am at the end of the tunnel all alone," he wrote to a Los Angeles first assistant director in an email obtained by the Pioneer Press. "The fans continue to gather, but they're frustrated and despondent. No one believes anymore."

Crowley reached out to Jason Allen in the Dec. 17 email, asking if he wanted to be an executive producer and help out with the logistics of the film project, which he started about four years ago and revolves around a plot of government conspiracy.

"Jason, you know exactly what to do with this," Crowley wrote.

Allen didn't get the opportunity to take Crowley up on his offer.

On Saturday, Apple Valley police found Crowley, 29; his wife, Komel, a 28-year-old dietitian; and their 5-year-old daughter, Rani, dead of gunshot wounds in what investigators are saying was a murder-suicide at the family's home in the 1000 block of Ramsdell Drive.
read more here

Deputies Investigate After Marine Iraq Veteran Killed

Putnam residents mourn loss of coach, war vet 
First Coast News
Andrew Casasso
January 20, 2015

Deputies in Putnam County say Joe Wall was found dead around 10:00 Sunday night from a gunshot wound at his home on Landmark Avenue in San Mateo.
PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. -- Many in rural Putnam County the death of a little league coach and Iraq war veteran is a big loss to their community. read more here
click link for videos